Astro- PROJECT, . A Data Base with Images and Programs for Archaeological, Archaeometrical and Archaeoastronomical Research in Romanian Statistical Analysis Florin Stanescu Fac. Sciences. University "Lucian Blaga" CP48. Dr. loan Ratiu Street. 2400. Sibiu. Romania. E-mail: [email protected]

Marius Ciuta University "1 Decembrie 1918" Alba-Iulia, Romania.

Nicolae Rodean Historical Museum of Alba-Iulia, Romania.

Introduction The research items were the following:

It is a well-known fact, by now, that any research, regardless 1) A Data base with dimensions of and orientations in of the research branch, needs data. This data is collected, settlement, sanctuaries, and cemeteries of the prehistoric epoch registred and classified in so-called data bases. In the (Palaeolithic and Neolithic: , ); following stages, the data bases are administrated through actualisation and interrogation requests, respectively, and 2) A Data base with archaeological and archaeometrical information requests, addressed to the data base, under a research from Sarmizegetusa-Regia, Costesti, Racos, Pustiosu, specific form. Fetele-Albe, Batca-Doamnei, and in the Dobrudja area, Enisala,Celic- Dere, etc.; Astronomical orientations in the In order to survive in this informal society and as scientific Dacian worlds; research progresses, permanent access to these data is required for the dynamic use of this information. No domain, 3) Systems of orientation and axes of territorial organization, in within human society, can avoid this aspect, nowadays. Roman buildings located in Romania (Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa, Alba-iuUa, Cluj-Napoca); Close on the heels of computer technology comes informational science, and there are four technologies which 4) Inventory and research regarding the sundial in Romania; offer the infrastructural premises for some permanent databases; these four technologies are: 5) Dimensions, and orientations in medieval cemeteries and sanctuaries, including the following churches: - mass memory technology; - Palaeochristian and Byzantine churches, especially from - optical scanning and electronic editing technology; Dobmdja: , , and Niculitel; - computer network technology; - Medieval cemeteries from Alba-Iulia; - on-line data base technology. - Medieval, fortified Saxon churches (Wehrkirchen), from Southem Transylvania;

Necessity, opportunity and aim of the project 6) The mapping out of some topographic and photographic areas, atlases of archaeological, archaeometrical and archaeo- The aim of this project was to create a data base at a national asfronomical interest, within the country ; level, to be used m archaeological, archaeometrical, archaeoastronomical, and etnoastronomical research. These 7) Asfral folklore of Romania (emoasfronomy); data are now available on the Internet. The Universities of Cluj-Napoca, lasi, Sibiu, and Alba lulia, as well as the 8) A Data base with authors and papers on archaeology, Historical Museums of , Cluj-Napoca, Deva, and archaeomefry and archaeoastronomy, from our country and Alba lulia, also joined in on this project. This paper also also foreign countries; this data base includes e-mail addresses, presents the concept of the system, the solutions chosen, the as well as ünks to those papers, written by the above methods of introducing the data, the statistical analysis, and mentioned authors. some of the results, obtained so far. All these data bases, marked 1-8, made up the project's main menu, which is presentiy available under HTML and, since the autumn, of this year, can be found on the Internet.

349 Characteristics, instuments and circumstances - HTML editor for the Internet - The system we have in mind allows the accessing of Numerous failures and disfunctions (and even renunciations) some special software, f.i. Matchad or Matlab, as well as in our attempt to create some data bases, designed to benefit other assistance software. archaeological, scientific research, required us to approach this activity in two stages. At first (and still) our work was Present outcomes dominated by the use of relational data bases, actually by the We shall present, in what follows, a series of results from the Data Base Administrating System - "ACCESS". But, ACCESS system of relational data bases, in subpoints 2, 5, scientific applications impose numerous restrictions on using as well as Matchad, Pascal software and HTML editor. relational data base systems, because these applications are used to determine application of some complex , mathematical operations, which relational request idioms NOTES: Certain project components have been presented at the cannot satisfy; also, analyses and operations, applied to the following international conferences: data tend to be extremely complex and cannot be easily expressed, with the relational language. a) DATA BASES AND PROGRAMS FOR ARCHAEOASTRONOMICAL RESEARCH was presented at the CAA96 Conference, in lasi, In response to these unsatisfactory results and near successes, Romania, in March, 1996 the data base research and development led to the creation or perfection of some high-level instruments, that is to say: b) STATISTICAL ANALYSIS CONCERNING THE ORIENTATION OF THE ALTAR OF THE CHURCHES BUILT WITHIN THE 13TH AND • instruments for cognitive discovery, including 15TH CENTURIES IN TRANSYLVANIA, ROMANIA was presented instruments for data analysis and leaming; at the SEAC Conference, in Gdansk, ,in September, • machines for statistical analysis, made for extracting 1997. knowldege out of data; • instruments for integrity and quahtity control, as a direct c) STATISTICAL ANALYSIS CONCERNING THE DETERMINATION cosequence of the dimensional increase of data bases. OF SOME PROBABLE MEASURING UNITS USED IN THE ANCIENT This is why automatic, detection instruments and error DAOAN BUILDINGS (1 ST CENTURY B.C - 1 ST CENTURY A.D.) IN control are absolutely necessary. THE ORASTIE MOUNTAINS, ROMANIA will be presented at the • instruments for administrating Hipermedia, respectively, rV International Symposium on Archaeology and Computing, the informal hypermedia systems, able to combine Bilbao, Spain, in May 1998. different mediums such as text, data, images, sound, etc.; • new instruments for data presentation and display, and, in practice, an extension of the instruments for hipermedia All Figures in CD-ROM. administration. • instruments for decisions and scenery analysis, which permit the simultaneous use of data bases, of tabular calculations and of moulding systems.

Sooner or later, all of these shall impose beguinning of the SECOND STAGE of the ASTRO-DACIA project development, passing to another data base type, leaving behind the relational one, used in the actual step.

Hypertext applications to data bases; to use hypertext idioms, the data base registrations are made up of texts, linked to the relational chart columns. As well known, the documents linked to the hypertext network can be accessed, both directly and indirectly. Moreover, the hypertext allows users to have their own vocabulary, which is a remarkable facility.

Finally, we consider that without a mathematical solution of the problem, precisely, without emerging of a new mathematical instruments of qualitative analysis type, it will be pretty difficult to obtain desired archaeological outcomes. But there are still reasons to be optimistical in that sense.

Resources used The ollowing resources were used in the project:

a) hardware resources: - Pentium with HDD MMX, scanners

b) software resources: - ACCESS data bases 350